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Kyte.tv shows Flash, er Flex 2.0, vs. Silverlight battle

To put an underscore on the Silverlight vs. Flash battle, last night there were several Web video startups that presented at the SF New Tech! Live shindig. I think all of them are using Flash. Will Silverlight start to show up? You can watch last night’s proceedings too on Veodia. Funny enough, they aren’t using Flash.

But what caught my eye last night? Kyte.tv. That rocks as a way to interact with other people via your video camera (particularly cool with cell phones). There’s a chat capability — you can email any video into the system and it’s shown immediately. Plus you can talk smack with the community that’s hanging out on your channel. I gotta try this out, but Maryam and I are headed off to Cancun tomorrow.

Right now I’m driving to Zoho in Pleasanton to get a good look at their suite of “Work 2.0″ services.

Adobe and Microsoft are going full force after developers now. It’ll be interesting to see what other services like Kyte.tv come along because of Flash and Silverlight. Those who are arguing for using plain old HTML are missing the point. Kyte.tv is cool and is cool because it’s using Flex 2.0. I don’t see developers building Kyte.tv style sites in plain old HTML.

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Robert Scoble

As Startup Liaison for Rackspace, the Open Cloud Computing Company, Scoble travels the world looking for what's happening on the bleeding edge of technology for Rackspace's startup program. He's interviewed thousands of executives and technology innovators and reports what he learns in books ("The Age of Context," a book coauthored with Forbes author Shel Israel, has been released at http://amzn.to/AgeOfContext ), YouTube, and many social media sites where he's followed by millions of people. Best place to watch me is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble
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I do think that Microsoft should try to cater to web devs/designers that use Macs in some way, whether it means forming a group within MacBU to create Mac-specific tools, or contracting some group to do it.

I’ve read that the Expression tools are WPF apps, so they couldn’t be ported directly, and maybe they shouldn’t, since Mac users prefer Mac-native look and feel apps. But Microsoft should still provide Mac versions of their tools.

I do think statements such as, “All web developers use Macs” is vastly overstated, because there are plenty of web design tools for Windows, and those tools are being sold to somebody. There are plenty of Windows-using web designers. But just to fill that hole in their story, Microsoft should address the Mac tools issue.

(Of course, if Silverlight takes off regardless, then a third party commercial or open source effort will make Mac Silverlight tools.)

I do think that Microsoft should try to cater to web devs/designers that use Macs in some way, whether it means forming a group within MacBU to create Mac-specific tools, or contracting some group to do it.

I’ve read that the Expression tools are WPF apps, so they couldn’t be ported directly, and maybe they shouldn’t, since Mac users prefer Mac-native look and feel apps. But Microsoft should still provide Mac versions of their tools.

I do think statements such as, “All web developers use Macs” is vastly overstated, because there are plenty of web design tools for Windows, and those tools are being sold to somebody. There are plenty of Windows-using web designers. But just to fill that hole in their story, Microsoft should address the Mac tools issue.

(Of course, if Silverlight takes off regardless, then a third party commercial or open source effort will make Mac Silverlight tools.)

All of them are multiple OS, virtual machine based applications that promised at sometime or the other (or now) to revolutionize the web.

My main concern about all these competing platforms is accessibility. How are the visually impaired able to interact with applications based off these platforms? Whats being done to ensure that the visually impaired have the same level of user experience as people with normal sight?

Until these issues are 100% addressed, there will always be a need for plain old HTML. Particularly in the government sector, where apps have to meet Section 508 guidelines.

So before we charge ahead into this brave new world of Silverlight/Flex powered RIA’s, lets not forget that the internet is for everybody, and that at the end of the day, accessibility is king.

All of them are multiple OS, virtual machine based applications that promised at sometime or the other (or now) to revolutionize the web.

My main concern about all these competing platforms is accessibility. How are the visually impaired able to interact with applications based off these platforms? Whats being done to ensure that the visually impaired have the same level of user experience as people with normal sight?

Until these issues are 100% addressed, there will always be a need for plain old HTML. Particularly in the government sector, where apps have to meet Section 508 guidelines.

So before we charge ahead into this brave new world of Silverlight/Flex powered RIA’s, lets not forget that the internet is for everybody, and that at the end of the day, accessibility is king.

“How are the visually impaired able to interact with applications based off these platforms? Whats being done to ensure that the visually impaired have the same level of user experience as people with normal sight?”

Good question. A book is a linear stream of words, and we can turn this to speech. But how do you turn a visual/kinesthetic experience into speech? How can a video actually be accessible to a wide range of people? We’ve got a lot to learn here.

Not everyone attends to their text presentation, though… it’s a decentralized, designer-level choice. As webpage experiences get more non-linear and interactive, the problem of a spoken-word equivalent becomes more challenging.

(For Barry, I’ve seen some sites resize the SWF on startup, and conflict with Firefox’s Flashblocker extension… setting Flashblock to “never block” for that site removes the problem. Not sure if it’s the same with kyte.tv’s pages.)

“How are the visually impaired able to interact with applications based off these platforms? Whats being done to ensure that the visually impaired have the same level of user experience as people with normal sight?”

Good question. A book is a linear stream of words, and we can turn this to speech. But how do you turn a visual/kinesthetic experience into speech? How can a video actually be accessible to a wide range of people? We’ve got a lot to learn here.

Not everyone attends to their text presentation, though… it’s a decentralized, designer-level choice. As webpage experiences get more non-linear and interactive, the problem of a spoken-word equivalent becomes more challenging.

(For Barry, I’ve seen some sites resize the SWF on startup, and conflict with Firefox’s Flashblocker extension… setting Flashblock to “never block” for that site removes the problem. Not sure if it’s the same with kyte.tv’s pages.)